The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a railway vehicle running at a high speed, and relates more particularly to an air conditioner for a vehicle, such as a railway vehicle which restricts a reduction in volume of cooling wind introduced into an exterior heat exchanger and which reduces aerodynamic noise generated at the time of introducing the cooling wind.
FIGS. 7 and 8 relate respectively to a conventional air conditioner for a railway vehicle; FIG. 7 is a configuration view of an exterior portion of the conventional air conditioner for a railway vehicle viewed in a vehicle transverse direction of the railway vehicle, and FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of an air intake port of the exterior portion of FIG. 7 viewed along an advancing direction of the railway vehicle.
In these views, 1 denotes a vehicle side surface of a railway vehicle running at a high speed, 2 an exterior portion of an air conditioner installed in a form of being buried in a ceiling portion of the vehicle, 3 an air exhaust port provided on the vehicle side surface 1, 4 an exterior cover positioned at the same surface as a vehicle roof surface 10, 5 an air intake port provided on the exterior cover 4, 6 an air intake louver which is provided within the air intake port 5 orthogonally with the vehicle advancing direction and is also located at the same surface position as the vehicle roof surface 10, 7 an exterior wind blower installed within the exterior portion 2, for introducing cooling wind into the exterior portion 2, 8 an exterior heat exchanger, and 9 a periphery of the air intake port 5 provided on the exterior cover.
Both the exterior cover 4 and the louver 6 installed on the exterior cover 4 so as to be orthogonal with a running wind 18 are worked to have the same curvature as that of the vehicle roof surface 10 and are disposed at the same surface position as that of the vehicle roof surface 10. An edge portion 6b of an upper end surface 6a of the louver 6 and an inside edge portion 9a of the air intake port periphery 9 is bent at a right angle.
In this air conditioner, when the exterior wind blower 7 mounted in the exterior portion 2 is operated, outside air is introduced into the exterior portion 2 through the louver 6. The introduced air is heat-exchanged by the exterior heat exchanger 8, and the heat-exchanged air is exhausted to the outside from the air exhaust port 3 through a space between the vehicle side surface 1 and the exterior portion 2.
During a vehicle-running, the running wind 18 flowing from the upper stream strikes the louver 6 and the air intake port periphery 9 and is introduced into the exterior portion 2.
According to such a conventional air conditioner for a railway vehicle, the introduced volume of outside air necessary for cooling the exterior heat exchanger decreases during a high-speed running of the railway vehicle, in the case where the running speed of the vehicle becomes unusually high so that the resistance of introducing and exhausting running wind becomes larger, or in the case where an exterior wind blower having a sufficient performance cannot be employed because of downsizing and noise reduction of an external wind blower.
Further, as each of the edge portions of the upper end surface of the louver and the inside edge portion of the air intake port periphery is formed at a right angle, this angle may become a noise source of the wind.
In addition, the conventional louver must have the same curvature shape as that of the vehicle roof surface so as to be arranged at the same surface position as that of the vehicle roof surface, resulting in troublesome working for the louver and fixing of the louver.